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Hawkman
=History= Ancient Egyptian Origins Prince Khufu lived during the reign of Ramesses II in the 19th dynasty of ancient Egypt. Khufu believed that his ka, or soul, would not journey on to the land of the afterlife. Rather, his soul and that of his betrothed, Chay-Ara, were fated to remain in the mortal world. Thanagarian Connection As prophesied by the wizard Nabu, a space ship landed in Egypt. Prince Khufu, Nabu, and the champion Teth Adam searched the desert, finally coming across the remains of a Thanagarian ship styled with a hawk-like motif. Nabu cast a spell translating the strange language of the female space traveler. Just before dying, she whispered the words, “Nth Metal”, the name of the substance that powered the downed ship. Teth-Adam lifted the ship back to Khufu's palace, where it was studied inside the Temple of Horus at Erdu. The remaining Nth metal was examined, and its most obvious property proves to be its ability to negate gravity. The remaining sample from the ship was melted and used to create several remarkable devices, including a scarab which allowed Khufu to fly, a deadly knife, and a battle glove referred to as the Claw of Horus. However, the metal also strengthened the souls of Khufu and Chay-Ara, binding them together in their love and imprinting them with the collective knowledge of Thanagar. Although the villainous priest Hath-Set murdered the two with the knife of Nth metal, their souls lived on in the mortal plane. They were reincarnated over many lifetimes, always finding true love in each other. However, they were cursed to be repeatedly killed at the hands of a reincarnated Hath-Set. From Khufu to Carter Hall After his death, Khufu's soul was reincarnated countless times in markedly different eras and locations. Some of his known reincarnated identities have included: *Brian Kent (also known as the Silent Knight), alive during 5th century Britain, lover of Lady Celia Penbrook; * Koenrad Von Grimm, the son of a blacksmith in 14th century Germany; * Captain John Smith of the 16th century English colony in Virginia; *Hannibal Hawkes, the Nighthawk, a gun-fighter in the American Old West, lover of Cinnamon; *Detective James Wright, a Pinkerton detective in the early 20th century, lover of Sheila Carr. Eventually, the soul of Prince Khufu was reborn as Carter Hall, an archaeologist active during the 1940s. After regaining the memories of his first life in Egypt, Hall used the hawk motif of the Egyptian God Horus to inspire his role as the original Hawkman. During the same period, his love Chay-Ara was reborn as archaeologist Shiera Sanders. After the two met and married, she became Hawkgirl, fighting at Carter's side. They became founding members of the Justice Society of America, and Hawkman took the role of chairman. The pair reduced their activities in the early 1950s but became fully active again decades later when first Carter and then Sheira joined the Justice League of America (while continuing to also work with the revived JSA). The two had a son, Hector Hall, who eventually became a founding member of Infinity Inc. I as the Silver Scarab, and later adopted the identity of the Sandman before becoming an incarnation of Doctor Fate. Following the event known as the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Hawkman and the JSA became trapped in a battle in an ever-repeating Ragnarok. The Norse god Odin tried unsuccessfully to give a crystal sphere containing this repeating Ragnarok to Dream, lord of the Dreaming as a trade, knowing that Dream had by this time selected Carter's grandson, Daniel Hall, as his successor. Back on Earth meanwhile, others took up the mantles of Hawkman and Hawkwoman, first Thanagarian spy Fel Andar and his human wife, and then a more benevolent pair of Thanagarians. The Hawks Return Years after they vanished, Hawkman and the JSA returned to the modern day when a primitive but superpowered tribe volunteered to substitute themselves in the Ragnarok cycle. Soon after, however, death seemingly found Carter once again during the events of Zero Hour. He and his wife Shiera seemingly merged with Katar Hol, a Thanagarian police officer who had succeeded Carter as Hawkman in his absence, as a new incarnation of Hawkman who briefly acted as host to the mysterious "hawk god" creature. This individual was active for a short time but soon lost his sanity and was banished to Limbo (it was eventually revealed that Shiera's soul had actually migrated to the body of her great-neice, Kendra Saunders, who had committed suicide). Alive again Years later, JSA member Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders) was transported to a ravaged Thanagar by the High Priests of the Downsiders. Seeking a champion to stop the evil Onimar Synn from enslaving the planet, the priests used Kendra's centuries-old connection to Carter to bring him back to the mortal plain. Following this unorthodox resurrection, Hall retained all the memories of his past lives, as well as those of Katar Hol, the Thanagarian Hawkman. It has since been stated that the soul of Katar Hol has passed on from Limbo and that Carter no longer retains his memories, though his current form still retains some of Hol's physical characteristics (notably his dark hair). After defeating Onimar Synn, Hall once again became a member of the JSA. Operating both with the JSA and with Hawkgirl, Hall embarked on a wide variety of exotic adventures. His quest as a hero took him from the streets of St. Roch to exotic dimensions and even into outer space as he fought in the Rann-Thanagar War. Following this event, Carter stayed in space for some months in order to help mediate the truce on Rann and avenge the murder of Shayera Thal, who as Hawkwoman had been the partner of the late Katar Hol. As a result, Hawkgirl was left by herself to patrol and protect St. Roch. Returning to space to help during the Rann-Thanagar Holy War, Carter was approached by the Demiurge, a nameless god who inspired Plato into describing his namesake. The Demiurge denounced the cycle of incarnation and rebirths of Khufu and Chay-Ara as lies, simple grafts of the alternate versions of Carter and Shiera residing in the different worlds of the multiverse that existed before the Crisis on Infinite Earths. He informed Carter that there were "Six Aberrations" in total, including Hawkman, whose origins were muddled and damaged by the the destruction and recreation of the universe. Carter was moderately impressed, until the Demiurge inexplicably began addressing him as Katar Hol. Nothing appears to have come of this though, and it has since been stated that these events were not as they seemed.